


sweatpants and hawkins high basketball shirt on the floor, this is all i’m asking for

by somuchanemoia



Category: Stranger Things - Fandom
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Other, agender/masculine steve harrington, nonbinary! Steve Harrington, realizing that they don't like typical feminine things, supportive boyfriends, who knew that i'd be posting something new before the end of 2020? i dunno but not me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:15:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27515179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somuchanemoia/pseuds/somuchanemoia
Summary: Steve saw the dress in Macy's and their eyes kind of lit up.Billy bought it for them and now as they sit here in it...it doesn't feel right.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington
Comments: 4
Kudos: 42
Collections: Idk





	sweatpants and hawkins high basketball shirt on the floor, this is all i’m asking for

**Author's Note:**

> I went feral and got a mocha and wrote some nonbinary steve for all my non femme nb needs. Please enjoy.

“I saw you eyeing it in the store.” Billy hummed as Steve opened the box that Billy had put in front of them. They pushed the tissue paper away and stared down at the pretty blue dress that they’d seen when they and Billy were in Macy’s last time, “I had to guess at a size because girls clothes are weird sizes but I think it should fit.” 

They looked up and gave Billy a smile, “Thanks, Bill. For this.”

“No problem, baby.” He leaned in and gave them a kiss, “Why don’t you try it on? See if I need to exchange it for a different size.”

Steve pulled the dress out of the box and went into the bathroom to change. Billy was right, feminine clothes were weird with sizes. They didn’t see a Medium or large tag on the dress, but a bright number 12 stood out on the tag. It looked big enough for them, Steve guessed, pushing off their sweat pants and pulling their Hawkins High Basketball t-shirt over their head. They unzipped the dress and pulled it over their head, letting the fabric fall around them as they pulled the dress down and put their arms in the sleeves. They pulled their hair up out of the way of the zipper and looked in the mirror.

It was a pretty dress. Dark pretty blue, tea length (at least thats what they remembered Nancy calling it), with a high neckline that made Steve’s shoulders look nice. It was a little big in the chest, a little short on them too, falling a little above their knees. But Steve did look pretty. They looked as pretty as Nancy, as pretty as Robin and Heather and all the other girls at school. 

They could see why their father liked to say they looked like their mother. Steve did have their mother’s face, pretty and soft, with freckles and moles. The dress made them look even more similar to her. 

But there was something not right too. 

It felt off. Not bad, Steve decided as they continued to look, not like when they were called a boy. Just off. Out of place. Not quite right. 

“I’m not used to this is all.” Steve hummed to themselves, “Not used to being able to...” They turned in the mirror, looking at the dress that was unzipped in the back, “I’m not even zipped in yet.”

They came out of the bathroom, “You mind zipping it up?” Billy smiled at them and came over, pulling the zipper up the back of the dress, making sure Steve’s hair was pulled out of the way so it didn’t get tangled. 

“Let me see?” Billy asked, smoothing his hands down their back. 

Steve rolled their shoulders, getting used to the feeling. When Billy zipped them up, the waist cinched in a bit more, the zipped on their back felt kinda funny, like they were wearing a jacket with no shirt underneath. 

They turned though and let Billy look, seeing how his gift looked on them. It still amazed Steve how cool Billy was being about this. About them not being a him. They still felt like they were holding their breath, waiting for Billy to change his mind, call them a freak who liked “women’s” clothes and leave. But it’s been a couple months and he was still here, still with them. 

And he’d bought them this pretty dress, with its small cutouts at the bottom of the skirt, and the little beading around the neckline. It’s what any savvy woman would wear out for a night on the town and then to church the next morning. It was pretty. It wasn’t boyish. 

And Steve wanted to like it. 

“It looks amazing, Stevie.” Billy beamed, reaching for their hand, “It looks nice. I like it.” Billy brushes a strand of hair from Steve’s face, “Pretty dress on my pretty significant other.”

“Yeah...” Steve hummed and looked down at themselves, “You like it?”

“Yeah.” Billy squeezed their hand and gave them another smile, “You have good taste. How’s it fit? Did I get the right size?”

“I think so,” Steve said, twirling a bit in place, liking the way the fabric fanned out around them as they spun, “It’s a little short, I think but it works. I don’t think they don’t make dresses for 5′11 people, usually.”

Billy chuckled, “And the sizes are confusing, what the hell, right?”

Steve laughed at that too, looking down at the fabric. The longer they stood around in it, the more wrong it was starting to feel. Their back itched too from the zipper and there was more air around them. They weren’t fond of the feeling.

_You’re just not used to it,_ Steve told themselves, _this is new, is all_.

Steve twirled around in the dress again, the feeling of the fabric flaring out making them feel a little better. They just needed to finish the look is all. 

“My...My mom has some makeup in her boudoir.” Steve hums, “Do mind if I...?” 

Billy grinned, “If thats what you wanna do. I used to watch my mom put makeup on when I was little. I can try to help if you want.”

“Thanks.” Steve leaned in to kiss his cheek. Then before he could, Billy said, “Also, your mom has a boudoir? Holy shit, Stevie, how rich are you?” Billy teased.

Steve rolled his eyes as he smiled, started pulling Billy towards the door, “Come help me, you goof. Gotta complete the look.” And take their mind off the feeling of this.

They made it to Steve’s parent’s bedroom, and into the small boudoir closet that Steve’s mother had gotten as a gift after catching their father cheating on her for the 2nd time. Steve didn’t get why she just didn’t leave their father, get alimony and palimony and even get the child support for Steve until they were 18 and call it quits. But she stayed, and each new affair got a brand shiny new present to each of them once they were caught. 

Steve settled down on the stool in front of their mother’s vanity, opening the drawer and looking at the numerous glass bottles and shiny compacts. They’d seen the makeup counters at the store, even stopped long enough to gave at the products in the cases, but they’d never really been drawn to it. Not like they were to the dress that they now were sitting in, itching and wanting to unzip and step out of. 

They took out the bottles, looking at the products, “What...is all this stuff?”

“Makeup.” Billy picked up a glass bottle, “Foundation.” Another one, “Another...foundation.” and then a third, “Another foundation.”

“Why so many?”

“I think blend them.” Billy hummed, “They’re different shades.”

Steve sighed and they picked up a bottle of foundation. As they started applying it, the feeling was getting worse. Their skin felt heavy, their back itched, Steve felt too exposed under the skirt of their dress, constantly keeping their legs locked tight together as they sat, trying to make it feel more comfortable. Billy helped him put on the eyeshadow that he’d managed to find while Steve was putting on powder; a set of very feminine looking mauves and pinks and browns, that did look pretty in the pan, but that made Steve shift around, trying to get more comfortable. Eyelines and mascara, came too and it made Steve wanna rip out their eyes with the feeling of goop on their face. 

Lipstick was the final straw. Their hands were shaking as they pulled out the dark rose lipstick and began to put it on their lips. 

They stopped, their bottom lip covered in pink, putting the lipstick down and turning away from the mirror towards Billy, “Bill...”

Bill grabbed their hands in his own, “Not your thing?” He asked quietly, softly. 

Steve nodded, felt tears coming to their eyes, “I...don’t like this.”

Billy pulled his chair closer and hugged Steve, “That’s okay.”

“I’m sorry...” 

“Why’re you sorry?” Billy pulled away, reaching for a makeup wipe in the drawer and beginning to wipe the makeup off their face, “It’s not your thing. That’s cool. I think you look nice just the way you are.”

“But...this isn’t...i should be okay with this.”

“Why?”

“Cause I’m nonbinary.” Steve sighs, “Clothes are just clothes. Things are just things.”

“That’s not true.” Billy hums, continuing to gently wipe the foundation off Steve’s skin, “Theres girls who don’t like this stuff. Theirs guys who don’t like typical guy stuff. And theres nonbinary people who don’t like things too. It has nothing to do with whether you’re following your gender, its about finding what you like and are comfortable in and saying ‘fuck gender norms’ and being happy.”

Steve sniffs and fingers at the dress, “Are you gonna be mad if I don’t want to wear this?” 

“Nope.” Billy smiles and wipes Steve’s eyes, “I still have the receipt. No sweat.”

Steve felt themselves chuckling now, eyeing their boyfriend as he smiled and finished getting the rest of the makeup off, “What if I’d ripped the tag off it?”

“Well, then we will give it to Robin...or Heather.” Billy raised an eyebrow, “Did you, uh, rip off the tags?”

Steve smiled, “No.”

“Good.”

Ten minutes later found them both sitting on the couch, Steve’s head in Billy’s lap. Steve had changed out of the dress, had folded it nicely and put it back in the box. They’d tossed their sweats and Hawkins High Basketball shirt back on and had come downstairs to find Billy in the kitchen searching for snacks. They’d rented, Steve really meant conveniently borrowed from work, a copy of St. Elmos Fire before it was released on Friday and had smuggled it home with them for Billy and them to watch. 

“I heard Rob Lowe was good in this.” Billy patted Steve’s head from where they’d laid on the couch, “And you know I’m a sucker for Demi Moore.”

“I think everyone is a sucker for Demi Moore.” Steve rolled onto their back and looked up at Billy, “She’s Demi Moore.”

Billy nodded, “You got a point there, Stevie.” And then he leaned down and kissed them.

And it was good. They felt comfortable, and good and happy. They felt like themselves like this. In their clothes, in their skin, with their handsome boyfriend leaning over them and kissing them because he could. 


End file.
